Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Wednesday Night Gaming: Thawn’s New Dawn

Terminator spam ahoy!

Loyal readers, I present to you the very 1st game
of 6th Edition 40K as played by the Wednesday Night Gaming crew
(myself & Laur) here on the 512th Cadian. Read on to see how well did Justicar Thawn fare against Belial's big boys.

New hefty rulebook read and re-read, we aim to play a 1k
point army game in which I’ve announced an attempt at a ‘Thawn-wing’ army, this
being a footslogging Terminator armour, with a Psycannon-Inquisitor and Justicar Thawn
at the helm, very much a ‘classic Grey Knight’ sort of flavour as it were.As a counterpoint, Laur decides to try out a Dark Angel
Deathwing army instead of his usual vanilla Space Marine list, so here are the
rosters.

LIST ANALYSIS

The idea behind this list is to fit as many Terminator
bodies as possible under 1k. I note that I’ve personally found Thawn to be
worth his points in his ability to resurrect, and the Vindicare is there to add
anti-vehicle and anti-building ability instead of a Psyfleman which I usually
opt for. The Inquisitor tops it all off nicely with an added Psycannon.

I then announced to Laurence that a GK termie-spam list was
what I was intending to bring to the table to give him a chance to either
rectify an inadequate list (e.g. an all-scout army with bolters) or go full
throttle and come up with a Terminator-beating force (e.g. plasma & melta
spam). His choice was to bring the Dark Angels, with Belial making 2 squads of
Hammer & Shield totin’ Deathwing, and 2 squads of Devastators with Plasma
cannons and Multi-meltas. Nice.

TERRAIN ANALYSIS

We play in strict accordance to the rulebook, rolling off
for missions (Crusade: 4 objectives), deployment (Hammer & Anvil: Long
table edges) and alternating terrain rules, which resulted in the terrain as
seen above. Note that we elected NOT to use Mysterious Objectives.

The terrain I feel is just right for this sort of
small-scale, heavily-armoured game. We have few units each, and a couple of
buildings and some scattered ruins littered round the table. Objectives have
been placed concentrated round the middle to ensure a good fight develops.

We also roll off for Warlord abilities, my Inquisitor gets
Tenacity (FNP 3” of an objective), and Belial gets Immovable Object (scoring
Warlord).

DEPLOYMENT

Laur wins the roll-off for going first so places his
Devastator units entrenched in a ruin and a building, with a squad of Deathwing
upfront and centre with his Dreadnought coming up to the side, while elected to
put Belial and a squad in reserve to Deepstrike.

I place a squad of Terminators on the northernmost ruin with
intention to secure that objective but remaining out of distance and LOS from
Laurence’s plasma cannons, and I split Thawn’s group into 2 at the southern
part of the map mostly hidden behind a piece of ruined terrain.

My Vindicare is placed within the ruins, to ensure that I
get a good shot of either the Dreadnought or the building in which the
Devastators are sitting on the battlements.

While Laurence lacks small arms fire, he has plenty of heavy
firepower with the plasma cannons and I am well aware of the reputation of
Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield terminators tearing chunks through other
Terminators (in which my Ap3 halberds are of little use, and my Daemonhammers
can be made safe by the 3++ storm shield save. Perhaps I should’ve brought more
Force Swords!).

I fail to seize the Initiative so away we go!

*Note: Sadly, no photographs taken during the battle.

TURN 1 DARK ANGELS

1. Night-fighting
comes into effect.

2.Belial and his
squad Deepstrike in according to his rules, but scatter slightly. Laur’s other
Deathwing squad and Dread surge forward, running where needed.

3. Devastators fire at the Vindicare. While the plasma
blasts scatter away, and even with a 2+ cover save (Shrouded due to Night
fighting, and the Vindicare’s innate Stealth) I roll snakeeyes and he is
killed, giving First Blood to Laurence.

TURN 1 GREY KNIGHTS

1. My Terminators pull back to put some distance between
Belial and his charge-hungry Thunderers. With any luck, some difficult terrain
can slow down and dampen the potential assault. With 24 storm bolter shots and
16 Psycannon shots, I manage to only fell a single Deathwing terminator ( I
think statistically I would’ve expected to kill at least 3) as my to-hit and
to-wound rolls were a bit underpar, even with Psybolt ammo.

TURN 2 DARK ANGELS

1. Laurence elects to do the same, pulling Belial back
behind the elevated ruin to provide LOS-blocking elements, reasoning that he too
would be quite happy to camp behind an objective and do a last minute surge
where required.

2. Devastators let rip but to no effect as Terminators make
all their saves. The Dark Angel Dreadnought pulls back a bit too and manages to
kill a single one of my Terminators. If only it was Thawn!

TURN 2 GREY KNIGHTS

1. The northernmost squad surges forward to the ruin to
secure the objective, peppering Belial with ineffective bolterfire.

2. Thawn and his combat squads align themselves to gain
Psycannon shots against the Dread.On a
good round of rolling, I manage 2 Glancing shots and 4 Penetrating shots, which
strips away the 3no. Hullpoints of the Dread along with an Explode! Result,
leaving a smoking crater.

TURN 3 DARK ANGELS

1. Belial elects to leave his squad since he is a scoring
element on his own, and a Devastator squad leaves their building to close the
distance between themselves and the Grey Knights.

1. The Terminator squad in the ruins entrench themselves
further and fire what they can at the Devastators, killing the Sergeant.

2. One half of Thawn’s squad peppers Belial with fire,
failing to kill any. Thawn with the Inquisitor and his squad, charge headfirst
to Belial’s bodyguard remnants skulking behind the ruin. Thawn issues a
challenge, which is taken up by the Deathwing sergeant but results in a
stalemate. The Grey Knights kill 3, but lose 2 of their own (the Halberdiers)
but Deathwing holds steady.

TURN 4 DARK ANGELS

1. Devastators kill another 2 Terminators, who again fail
their cover save, while the other group moves forward too.

2. Belial rejoins a group of Deathwing to lend them his power,
and they charge forward losing none of their number, but killing off Thawn’s
squad and my Warlord giving another Victory point to Laurence. Thawn remains
locked in combat with the Deathwing Sergeant.

TURN 4 GREY KNIGHTs

1. My Terminator squad in the ruins roll snake eyes in their
attempt to remain in coherency, while my last full-squad of Terminators surge
forward but fail to close in their charge distance in an attempt to tackle
Belial.

2. Thawn manages to slay his chalengee, and remains locked
in combat with Belial.

TURN 5 DARK ANGELS

1.Devastators fire but to no effect, Thawn re-issues a new
challenge but is refused, so a Deathwing sergeant is elected to remain out of
combat. Nevertheless Thawn is beaten to
a pulp by the the mass Thunderhammer attacks, and Belial and co. consolidate
back towards an objective. A graveyard marker is left behind to represent
Thawn’s final ‘resting spot’.

TURN 5 GREY KNIGHTS

1. Thawn fails to re-spawn, preferring his dirtnap.

2. As this could potentially be the last turn. Both
remaining groups of Terminators secure their objectives where possible.

3. The last die is rolled, and it’s game on for another
turn!

TURN 6 DARK ANGELS

1. Belial and his boys secure the objective within the
ruins, pulling back further and further to remain out of possible charge range.

1. Lady luck smiles upon Thawn, as he re-spawns on a roll of
4 (he needs a 4+ per game turn to resurrect), and runs forward to deny Belial
his objective. Re-sult!

2. My group of Terminator in the elevated ruin re-arrange
themselves and fire away ineffectually, but remain on top of their objective.

3. A further die roll is cast, and the game has ended.

Final Score: Dark Angels have 2 VPs, due to First Blood and
Slay the Warlord. Grey Knights have 6 VPs, due to 2no. objectives held.

Grey Knights win, FTW!

GAME ANALYSIS

Both Laurence and I have been playing our first ever 6th
edition game with a 5th edition mentality. We both really thought of
the game as being a Draw result, due to us incorrectly assuming that each
Objective is worth only 1 Victory point each (in reality, each Primary
Objective is actually 3 Objectives each). Both our jaws dropped after we shook
hands on a good (assumed) draw game, checked the rulebook, and proved ourselves
wrong.

Therefore, even if Thawn did NOT re-spawn and deny Laurence
his objective, the Grey Knights would’ve STILL won on a score of 6 VPs to 5
VPs.

In hindsight, should Laurence and I both knew of the immense
strategic importance of the objectives, the game would’ve been played very differently.
The Deathwing would have been run even more aggressively, worked the squads in
tandem and would’ve attempted to trounce Thawn and his Terminators as they were
more than adequately able to due to their Stormshield saves.

Also Laurence hesitated in departing Belial to secure yet
another objective by himself (the one in the middle) which would’ve applied
even more pressure on me, for fear of being shot at, or possibly assaulted by
my other group of Terminators. This was definitely a mistake on Laurence’s
part, as by the later stages of the game I only had 2 Terminators in the
northernmost ruin who remained hidden out of LOS, and if only he had not ignored the central objective, things would've been very different. In this regard, it was also a
mistake on Laurence’s part to not re-deploy his Devastators to apply pressure
on my forces camping on objectives.

Laurence did concede that my shooting has been lacklustre
and should’ve killed more of his troops, and likewise Laurence’s own rolling
has been above average, but we both played a cautious game, testing each
other’s strikes and feints.

Roll that 4+ to Re-spawn Thawn

What Laurence really didn’t like was Thawn’s re-spawn
ability (this was his first time facing Thawn). A game that was previously a
loss in which a draw can be clawed back from, or a draw turning into a victory
on a roll of 4+ is pretty cheesy. But is it any cheesier than Zogwort's insta-squig gaze, or a Space Marine Librarian's non-Deny-the-Witchable Null Zone? :)

Grey Knights are now an army with low model count but plenty
of sneaky tricks, and in future Laurence would do well to adjust his tactics
and model positioning in such a way to deny me this advantage.

SUMMARY

A good, yet tough game. Terminator Vs. Terminator has always
been a matchup I’ve longed to see and I got it. Deathwing are surely an
opponent that demands respect, and with the new impending Dark Vengeance
release, can see a resurgence in popularity.

Ultimately I knew I was outmatched due to the devastating
wargear combo of the Deathwing, and had to rely on putting distance between me
and Laurence and wear them down with as much small arms fire as I could. I
would argue that I did NOT succeed on this basis and would have been pancaked
by the unstoppable force of the Deathwing, but I had *accidentally* won the
game by both our misassumptions with the Mission rules, and Laurence’s equally
cautious and hesitant strategy.

Despite bad shooting and save rolls, luck *won* me the game
as my opponent’s strategy had been misinformed. Really it should’ve been a
draw, even with Thawn’s interference.

Welcome to 6th Edition 40K everybody! Thanks for
reading, and comments as ever, are welcome.

2 comments:

Indeed the shift is significant. As vehicles can no longer score OR deny objectives (even with troops transported in them) the game now relies on survivable, hard-as-nails troops, or a last minute objective grab, to win games.

Hard-as-nails-troops. I wonder if Terminators fit that description? :)

On the plus side, while they have downgraded area terrain (now 5+) you get a 2+ increase to your cover when going to ground (now a 3+), so make sure objectives are firmly placed within area terrain and have a few cheap guardsmen hold the line.